Lone Republican Candidate for Mayor of New York City Is Facing Bipartisan Plot To Force Him Out of the Race

Curtis Sliwa says he won’t drop out of the New York mayoral race — even if the knives are out for him.Pressure is mounting from business leaders, MAGA world influencers, independents, and moderate Democrats for Mr. Sliwa to quit the race so the anti-Zohran Mamdani vote can coalesce around one candidate and have at least a shot at beating the 33-year-old Democratic Socialist state assemblyman in November. The growing consensus among these groups is that Mayor Adams is the candidate to back. A grocery store magnate and former Republican candidate for New York mayor, Jon Catsimatidis — who employs Mr. Sliwa at his WABC radio station when the red beret-wearing crime fighter isn’t running for office — says he’s backing Mr. Adams. He stood up at 75 Main in Southampton on Saturday and told a group of assembled New York power players that the major hurdle now is getting Mr. Sliwa out. A hedge fund billionaire, Bill Ackman, who gave half a million dollars to Governor Cuomo in the primary, posted to X on Wednesday that he met with Messrs. Adams and Cuomo this week and has decided to back Mr. Adams. “My takeaway is that Adams can win the upcoming election and that the Governor should step aside to maximize Adams’ probability of success,” he posted. Real estate executives and Republican politicos tell the Sun the field needs to consolidate quickly and a ground operation needs to be set up to counter Mr. Mamdani’s well-oiled Democratic Socialists of America get-out-the-vote operation. They say that in a city where Democrats far outnumber Republicans, Mr. Sliwa, who won the Republican nomination unopposed, has no shot at winning.The 71-year-old Guardian Angels founder, though, is standing his ground. He tells The New York Sun there’s no way he’s getting out of the race. It’s also too late to remove a candidate’s name from the ballot, unless he dies or moves out of state. “There is no price or anything that could be offered that would get me to jump out of this race,” Mr. Sliwa tells the Sun. He says he’s like Robert DeNiro in the movie “Deer Hunter,” with a gun to his head. “You could put me in that situation, and I will say one thousand times, ‘No, I’m staying in the race. There’s no way to get me out.’ I can’t say it any more graphically,” Mr. Sliwa says. Mr. Sliwa thinks he can win the November election with just 31 percent of the vote in a crowded field. He ran for mayor in 2021 on the Republican ticket and lost to Mr. Adams with 28 percent of the vote. He’s been campaigning for a rematch ever since, but the few general election polls released so far show him doing worse this cycle.This year’s election will be a crowded field. Mr. Mamdani is running on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines. Mr. Adams is running for re-election on two independent lines he created. Mr. Sliwa is running as a Republican. Mr. Cuomo’s name will be on the ballot on an independent line he created, though he has not yet said whether he will actively campaign. Either way, his name recognition will ensure he garners a significant number of votes. There are also a couple other candidates running on independent lines but not polling at significant percentages.A Honan Strategy Group poll released last week — the first post-primary poll — shows Mr. Sliwa getting 7 to 10 percent of the vote, depending on the field. A Manhattan Institute general election poll, released before the primary, shows Mr. Sliwa earning 13 to 16 percent of the vote, depending on the field — enough to help Mr. Adams win if all the Sliwa votes go his way. Those who fear a Mamdani mayoralty look at the polling and say the smart move is to back Mr. Adams. The only other choice would be Mr. Cuomo, who got trounced in the Democratic primary last week by Mr. Mamdani. “Everybody right now is in panic mode,” the president of Empire State Properties, Suzanne Miller, told the Sun last week. “I think that all the money is going to start pouring in for Eric Adams.”Mr. Sliwa says these power players “need to take a deep breath.” He says they sound like a jilted lover looking for a rebound fling. “The rich and the wealthy who put all their chips on Andrew Cuomo are upset. They’re embarrassed,” he says. “They thought Cuomo would have a coronation, and they were telling me, ‘Don’t feel bad, Curtis, you can’t win.’”“I’m supposed to listen to you now that Eric Adams will win?” he says.Mr. Sliwa says he’s got the backing of all five Republican Party borough leaders, including Mr. Catsimatidis’ daughter, A.J. Catsimatidis, who heads the Manhattan Republican Party. He says he’s about to get $4 million in matching funds from the city’s Board of Elections, which will help him get out his message. His campaign now has only $54,408 in the bank. “You can’t just jump out at that point,” Mr. Sliwa says about getting matching funds. “You’d have to give back all the money — and by the way, all the invoices that you promised vendors that you’ll be paying when you get the matching funds, that’s got to come out of your pocket.” Mr. Sliwa says even a call from President Trump and a job offer in his administration wouldn’t be enough for him to quit the race. That idea has been floated by some Republicans. Mr. Sliwa, though, clarifies that no such offer has been made.“I would respectfully, obviously speak to him and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. President, for offering me that job, but the only job I’m interested in is mayor of the city of New York,’” he says.Mr. Sliwa says he’s also not interested in making a deal with Mr. Adams to drop out in exchange for a deputy mayor of public safety job. “We cannot get along,” he says of Mr. Adams, “That would be like having two scorpions in a brandy glass.”“We are with Curtis and we stand behind Curtis, and we’re waiting for Curtis to define his next move,” the chairman of Brooklyn’s Republican Party, Richie Barsamian, tells the Sun. “Whatever Curtis decides, we will support it.”

Lone Republican Candidate for Mayor of New York City Is Facing Bipartisan Plot To Force Him Out of the Race

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